Opening my e-mail, the other day, after coming back from seeing “Collapse” for a second time, I’m immediately inundated with links to a new article on the Guardian’s website: “Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower. Watchdog’s estimates of reserves inflated says top official.”
Now, I’ve never been a big follower of the ‘peak oil crowd’ – a group of people that have the same passion as 9/11 truthers. At my last job I received many an e-mail from peak oilers that contained threats. For that reason, over the years I have chosen to stay away from the conversation all together, merely shrugging my shoulders when the topic comes up at conferences and talks that I’ve attended. “I’m not an expert” then following that with “Hubbard’s “peak” has been moved forward several times,” and adding finally – now with a raising of the hands “but that’s just what I have read,” and then quickly changing the subject to something about Bush’s oil wars.
There is no doubt in my mind that there is a peak – if we have reached it already it does not matter – what is important is that at the current rate of global economic expansion an oil collapse is imminent. And this is where I begin with Michael Ruppert and Chris Smith’s new documentary ‘Collapse.’
Mr. Ruppert began his adult life with a “Q” clearance (above top secret) – essentially inherited from his father, an Air Force officer and his mother a cryptographer for Army Intelligence. Michael was given the “Q” since he could have potentially look in his fathers briefcase as a child. If genetics meant anything for an investigative journalist – he’d would have started out as one of the best. They don’t of course – but Ruppert set out to spend the next 30 years building a resume the hard way.
As a young officer in Los Angeles in the 70′s, he claimed to be approached by the CIA to help smuggle drugs into the U.S. That was a turning point for him and over the next three decades he would become one of the most prolific and well known underground journalists, starting his own newsletter ‘From the Wilderness,’ and eventually a website of the same name. Some of the stories that he has broken – or at least was the first to publish – include the Pat Tillman scandal, Cheney’s environmental meetings, and of course CIA’s drug dealings. You can see him here confronting CIA Director John Deutch at a Los Angeles town hall meeting.
Collapse opens with Ruppert sitting in what looks like an abandoned building, smoking a cigarette, he will smoke many of them by the end of this film. Honestly, by the end of Collapse I felt like picking up smoking again – what did i have to lose – the world was ending as we know it. Dire predictions are this man’s strong point, what worries me (and should worry you) is that he seems to be so often right case in point – the economic collapse of 2008. Ruppert sees this not as a one time dip but as the coming of a greater depression. He seems to scoff at the idea that human ingenuity will be able to pull us out of this one – essentially we are in too deep.
Ruppert, explains ‘peak oil’ – the idea, put simply that we have hit the top of the bell curve of crude oil discoveries – not now, or even as the new numbers suggest in 2005 but in the 70′s – Hubbard’s earliest predictions. If he, and Hubbard are correct we are very near the collapse of the oil culture. This is the collapse that he’s really talking about – not the recent economic one but the point when oil – the thing that everything, and I mean everything is built with becomes too expensive for us to continue.
“10 hydrocarbons for every ONE calorie”
This, and that seven gallons of gasoline go into every tire are the two facts that he continually goes back to when explaining why we’re are in such deep sh*t. Ruppett isn’t ok with just knocking the present – point by point he knocks down the alternatives – “electricity is not an energy SOURCE” – bashing electric cars as an alternative to petrol run autos and “[there is] no such thing as clean coal.” To call him blunt is an understatement. I would thoroughly enjoy a debate between Ruppert and Al Gore about the future of energy policy in the U.S. -although I may not agree with all of his pronouncements his ‘wake up and smell the oil fumes’ attitude is well needed within Al Gore’s current soft and fluffy cap and trade environmental movement.
“Don’t Panic”
In Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ we follow a man and his son through a desolate wasteland where all civilization has broken down. McCarthy’s vision is not that far off from Ruppert’s post-collapse world. This is where Ruppert loses me completely but it’s also where the film gets really good.
Chris Smith, the director of ‘The Yes Men’ and ‘American Movie’ makes a very interesting choice at this point in the picture – which up until now has mainly consisted of Errol Morris-esque use of stock footage and interview style – he allows his subject to put a pause in the film. Ruppert is having a revelation, a mighty smile crosses his face and he begins again this time with breakneck speed, explaining point by point how we can survive the coming end of (oil) days. It’s also at this point in the documentary when you realize how well Smith has presented this mad prophet – who if you gave him a trenchcoat would be a modern day Mr. Beale. This is something that Smith must be credited with, because what Ruppert has to say is important and without ‘Collapse’ it would be left to the Internet trolls, whether they be 9/11 or peak truther’s to scream in caps on YouTube pages at the bottom of this review. Chris Smith during a talk at the Angelika Theater in NYC said that this will be his last documentary, that he wanted to return to fiction film calling it much easier – let’s hope that’s not true. Collapse is a dire wake up call for the YouTube Generation, the VHS generation and the cinemascope generation – wake up or die.
FWD: FWD: FWD: Go.See@Collapsemovie.com
SUBJECT: Take your friend to this picture – you’ll need someone to talk about it with.
Zach Roberts is a journalist and film reviewer, he edited the 2008 investigative comic book “Steal Back Your Vote” with Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and is producer of several DVD’s including The Election Files and Big Easy to Big Empty. Currently he is working on a film investigating mining related pollution. Follow him on twitter at twitter.com/docutweets
“Ruppert, explains ‘peak oil’ – the idea, put simply that we have hit the top of the bell curve of crude oil discoveries – not now, or even as the new numbers suggest in 2005 but in the 70’s – Hubbard’s earliest predictions.”
Ah, no. You got it wrong. Global discoveries peaked in the 60′s, Hubbard’s peak oil prediction was for the lower 48, and it peaked in 1970, the global peak was in 2005. Hubbard did make a 1995 prediction for global peak oil, but that was before the fall of the Shah of Iran, the OPEC embargo and the Iran-Iraq war, so of course he got it wrong.
Also OPEC ties quotas to reserves, Saddam started to cheat because he needed money to fight the war on Iran, then the others started cheating as well. The real size of OPEC reserves is probably no more than 1/3 of the official numbers.
Ruppert has peak oil right because the supply is finiite and the desire to consume the stuff strong. Driving your own car is a thrilling experience that will not be given up too easily. But he has it wrong on electricity. Electricity is unlimited — coal will have to end because of the global warming tipping points: ocean acidification and the release of frozen hydrates, BUT uranium and thorium are plentiful and can provide plenty of electricity. There are also wind, solar photovoltaics, geothermal, etc. There is a need to introduce electric transport to the mobility market just to satisfy the desire to run about. The heavy transport of goods and FOOD will require new systems to bring the freight closer to where the consumers are located. Our group is working on superconducting magnetic levitation transport and energy storage systems. See http://www.magneticglide.com. We believe this will be the next system for the movement of freight and to replace domestic aircraft as the oil supply becomes more precious. Our current systems design can transport people at 10 cents per passenger mile which is substantially less than current aircraft cost per passenger mile about 15 cents.
I tell you this if Barack Obama is smart enough to have Iran take out Saudi Arabia then Barack Obama is smarter then I gave him credit for.
Article from TPR below:
Fear of Iran is a key factor in Riyadh stepping up its military campaign against the Houthi rebels.
By Caryle Murphy – GlobalPost
Published: November 14, 2009
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military offensive against rebels in neighboring Yemen — the first time its armed forces have gone into combat in almost 20 years — underscores Riyadh’s deep concern about Yemen’s crumbling internal stability, and the possibility that Iran will exploit the turmoil to spread its influence.
The Saudis’ sustained air-and-ground offensive against the rebels, known as Houthis, is also raising questions about Saudi objectives and how they will extricate their forces from what is a messy and volatile internal struggle in an increasingly dysfunctional state.
“It is hard to know what the Saudis intend to achieve in terms of specific military objectives,” Kristian Ulrichsen, Kuwait Research Fellow at the London School of Economics, wrote in an e-mail. They “would be well-advised” not to get involved in what “is rapidly becoming a failed state” in Yemen.
Zachary Roberts here it the real issue the American public lacks the minimal skills of critical thinking to understand the depth of this criminal enterprise. Peak oil is a physical reality the issue really is not peak oil. The real issue is why has Saudi Arabia from 1980 to the present been allowed to steal from international monetary funds by over stating their oil reserves. George H. Bush, Bill Clinton, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and, George W. Bush has been, making a killing literally and figuratively by allowing this criminal active to occur. Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a creation of the intentional misrepresenting of Saudi Arabia oil reserves to borrow money from. Iran and Iraq oil reserves have been controlled by our shadow government since 1952 for sole purpose of the impending transition from Saudi Arabia enormous reserves once they peaked.
You can draw a direct link to the creation of Al Qaeda and many other terrorist organizations and the funds from BCCI to Al Qaeda one of many references below:
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/1995/2241_bcci.html
So Zachary Roberts to pass off the entire scope of peak oil is an insult to the world and humanity as a whole. Iraq and Iran’s oil has been the most treasured sacred reserve for many decades. Zachary Roberts if you go to the Bush presidential libraries or the Clinton presidential library you witness first hand what this fucking blood money will buy.
FYI, I don’t allow personal attacks. I’m sure you can find a way to provide constructive criticism without the ad hominems. I do appreciate your input and passion Jesse. It’s good to see you here. Let’s just keep the conversation civil. Spirited, but civil. Thank you buddy.
Hubbert actually somewhat revised his world peak prediction by 10 years due to the OPEC embargo. You can see him explain it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImV1voi41YY&feature=player_embedded
To the poster who cites nuclear fuels, the main problem there is that we mine those materials with extensive use of oil. The main problem with food isn’t delivery, it’s the fact that our mechanized food production is soaked in oil. Ruppert cites this article he published in FTW: http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100303_eating_oil.html
wherein Dale Allen Pfeiffer reports that 10 calories of fossil fuels are required to grow one calorie of food.
I haven’t seen the movie yet and can’t wait till it comes out on PPV.
TPR
Thanks for this post; my the best come to Mr. Ruppert.
Love “Light” and Energy
_Don
A useful review marred by the lengthy exposition at the start, which tries to tar everyone involved in highlighting the peak oil issue with the same brush: i.e. we are all a bunch of intolerant, single-issue zealots.
Well every issue has its lunatic fringe. It’s a shame if Mr Roberts has consistently found himself rattling the cage of peak oil’s flakier elements. In my experience, most of those concerned about peak oil are quite like me – professionals with families. We read extensively across a wide spectrum of sources, from the oil and gas industry, general news, politics, economics and of course the likes of Heinberg, Campbell, Ruppert, Aklett and others at ASPO, The Oil Drum, etc.
Many of us have invested thousands of hours reading up on money theory, physics, chemistry, economics, international politics, globalisation, and so on, to provide ourselves with adequate context for making our own judgements on peak oil.
There is now a considerable and growing body of literature on peak oil, produced by the likes of Germany’s Energy Watch Group, Britain’s respected Chatham House policy think tank and a dozen others. ‘Collapse’ is a very important step in raising awareness of the whole “where next?” question facing fossil-fuel-powered industrial civilisation.
But it is nonsense to suggest that ‘Collapse’ represents the point where peak oil (better stated as peak net energy) crosses the Rubicon from being an issue entirely dominated by malign ‘truth nuts’ to one that sensible people can talk freely about over dinner.
I haven’t seen the film yet but have been involved intimately with the subject for 3 years now. Peak oil is one part of the system described as biophysical economics and how the human race, and all life, has been grappling with energy since the dawn of creation. Modern economics is to blame for our plight and it is this that has to be changed. We are at the summit of human existence and from here forward it’s all downhill.
No you’ve got your head around that, maybe you’ll get back on 9/11 and the rest of the blatantly obvious. Information is information, who gives it to you is irrelevant. Since truthers have been called retards, if a retard tells you there’s a rapist on the loose but can’t explain it very well, you should still check it out.
“ziggy12345- Modern economics is to blame for our plight and it is this that has to be changed.”
I’d agree those modern economics are to blame, Keynes more specifically, being employed relatively easily nowadays.